CENTRAL CITY — Nobody does opening night like the Central City Opera, and every year, the company manages to outdo itself.
Longtime CCO patrons know the routine — the debutantes and their escorts, the quasi 19th-century setting, the flowers thrown onto the stage of the charmingly intimate opera house — but what happens onstage before the flowers fly is invariably the most magical element of all.
Saturday night, the summer season opened with Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” the quintessential Italian comic opera. The 1816 score is less frequently performed today than its narrative sequel, Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” but its melodies are still beloved and its comedy still sparkles.
Director Marc Astafan places the action firmly and unambiguously in its original setting and time, but does so with panache. The home of Doctor Bartolo, where the spirited heroine Rosina lives under virtual house arrest, has a distinctively cage-like architecture. The colorful props, especially the titular character’s cart, are endless sources of delight.
Singing Rossini’s agile coloratura at 8,000 feet is impressive enough, but this collection of singers did so with such ease and apparent nonchalance that their comedic talents were placed in even greater relief.
Baritone Daniel Belcher made an impact earlier this year as Mercutio in Opera Colorado’s “Romeo and Juliet.” As Figaro, the eponymous “Barber,” Belcher exuded joy throughout. It must be daunting to enter with an aria as familiar as Figaro’s “Largo al factotum.”
Figaro plays matchmaker to the romantic leads, Rosina and the arduous Count Almaviva. In tenor David Portillo’s hands, the count was both hilarious — particularly in his two disguises — and romantic.
Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Rivera played Rosina with a coquettish glee. Portillo and Rivera are both making their CCO debut, and their vocal pyrotechnics were a continual source of pleasure. Both dazzled in their duets with Belcher.
The comic bass voice in Italian opera (“basso buffo”) is a rare aural experience, and Patrick Carfizzi was precise and nimble as the jealous and hopeless Dr. Bartolo. Carfizzi’s “patter” aria in Act I drew raucous applause from the appreciative audience.
The role of Don Basilio, a sort of straight man to Dr. Bartolo, could easily become thankless, but bass Grigory Soloviov imbued him with considerable character, especially in the wonderful “Buona sera” ensemble.
From the podium, music director John Baril kept everything moving at a brisk pace, such that the long first act seemed to fly by. Baril’s choruses are always spectacular, and this one, whose role is limited but important, was no exception.
“Barber” has been plagued by tinkering and tampering, but Baril presented the opera as Rossini wrote it; avoiding the traditional replacement arias or insertions, and keeping the singers’ displays under control.
During the curtain calls, the flying flowers seemed to take Rivera by delighted surprise, and the stage was already covered by the time Belcher came out to take his well-deserved bows.
